After completing our short walk around Kintbury and picking up a few essential items it was time to drop a line into the canal and see if there were any suicidal fish. Turns out there was! We kept the fish just long enough to remove the hook and take a photo then it was back in the canal.
Our starts are beginning to get earlier and earlier as we get closer to Bath in a quest to find moorings for both boats rather than breasting up. It's not so bad breasting up but having solid ground beside you is best if you want to work on the side of the boat, like washing and polishing it. Walking along the gunnels of each other's boat starts to make the inhabitants sea sick after awhile. There is also the moored boat factor to consider. Boats seem to be staggered right along this canal and as we get closer to Bath they are becoming more prolific so you are constantly slowing down, passing a moored boat, then speeding up again.
There have been a few firsts for Rachael and I along this canal. This time we came across a swing bridge across the middle of a canal at Hungerford's Marsh Lock.
Nothing difficult involved, it was just a case of something extra to do after you exit the lock. In our case a boat appeared just in time for us to be able to leave the bridge open and the front gates open. The other regular thing on the K & A is finding someone moored in the lock landing. This time, moving out of the lock and with a crosswind blowing, it made it rather difficult to pickup Rachael since the boat was moored plum in the middle of the landing rather than at least mooring on the end so that it was possible to use part of the landing.
Our Great Bedwyn mooring was once again breasted up but this time by choice. We were about thirty seconds ahead of a boat coming from the west and looking for a mooring, we managed to grab the last one. They cruised on for a few hundred metres resigned to mooring well out from the bank and with the long weeds to contend with. Oddly, boats moved off the moorings later on around 5 pm making room for Serafina to slip into a spot, but with moorings tight and us already settled we decided to stay put and let someone else fill the void, which they did in a short while.
Friday morning I poked my head outside and the weather, as predicted, looked ominous. I donned my wet weather gear prepared, I thought, for what looked like a rainy day. It was already lightly raining when we moved our boats down a few hundred metres to the water point to fill our tanks, by the end of the day we would be sick of water. As we cruised on, the rain became heavier and just didn't let up. The only repreive we got from the rain was Bruce Tunnel, built in 1810, which compared to outside was warm and dry but sadly it is only a short one at 502 yds.
We were heading for Pewsey today but by two o'clock we had had enough, mooring up at some nice moorings in Wootten Rivers. We tied off the boats, I came inside and peeled off the layers of wet clothes. The only dry clothes were my jeans. Straight into a hot shower and relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening as the rain continued to pelted down.
Today Rachael awoke comfortable in the knowledge that it was a rare one lock day. She stayed up with me on the stern off and on but The Long Pound, the name given to this part of the canal, seemed to go on and on. I spent much of my time with reeds to the left and right.
A couple of swing bridges and some interesting steering techniques from a couple of boaters were the only things to break the monotony, not to mention the speed up, slow down of the even more prolific moored boats that were well spread out along the Pound. I did find a few other things as well to entertain myself, I spotted this interesting boat moored along the canal, looks like an old lifeboat.
These Canadian Geese were keen for a race.
Something different; we stopped for lunch rather than have it as we were cruising. There were a couple of moorings right outside the The Barge Inn at Honeystreet so we popped in.
This interesting pub seems to be in the middle of nowhere but it was quite busy. It has a rather eclectic collection of 'stuff' inside that kept us amused for quite a while.
Back cruising Rachael poked her head out of the cabin just in time to take the standard photo around these parts of the white horse on the hill. That is, if you are not taking photos of crop circles, The Barge has a great collection of local crop circle photos.
We cruised into Devizes and took up a couple of nice moorings just above the Caen Hill Locks, a reminder of the pain to come tomorrow!
One thing the trusty Canal Companion doesn't allow for in its timing estimates is the number of moored boats. We have easily exceeded an extra hour per day, taken up slowing for moored boats. Very frustrating when they are spaced out at approx. 100 metre intervals over several kilometres.
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